Understanding AI a little better

[FSX101]

AI is a neat thing to have especially when a scenery you install comes with it. I had some trouble recently with AI not showing up at a couple of addons, but through the use of forums like this one I have (it appears) it working properly now. I'd like to know a little more on how AI works especially in FSX if anyone has the time. I know that  default AI comes with fresh installs of FS. Then you might install a payware like UT. Then some scenery addons come with it. At this point I start getting lost. Thanks for any basics on how all this meshes together. Also not only AI aircraft, but AI ships as well. Static and moving AI.

Thank you,

Curtis

   

Order #49558 FTX: AU Gold Subtropical East

Order #47550 FTX: AU YSTW Tamworth Airport

Order #34020 FTX: AU YPEC Aeropelican Airport

[Martin Henare]

Ai has three components.

The Aircraft

The Airport

The Flight Plan

For an AI aircraft to exist it needs an Aircraft to be programed to fly a flightplan between two Airports.

Flight plans can either be a repeating flight based on time eg every 3 hours, or on a schedule which is spread over 24 hours or 7 days and scheduled using a departure time and arrival time using UTC time. It will repeat the same schedule every seven days which is how most airline type AI traffic is programmed to represent the real weekly schedule of each of the airlines.

Any Aircraft in your Simobjects Aircraft folder can be used as AI but it is recommende to stick with models specifically designed to be used as AI as they are simpler and have less impact on performance.

The airports must have a coded APX file which is a plan map on the airfield and must have a runway and atleast one parking spot for the AI to spawn and operate. The number of aircraft that can operate from a single field is limited by the number of parking spots. eg if an aircraft lands at an airport with no free parking spots available it will disappear when it leaves the runway.

So the Flightplans must have the aircraft type, departure airfield, departure time, arrival time and arrival airport.

Ai ships use a similar system but i have not personally delved into schedules shipping.

The APX determines the airport based AI such as fuel trucks, baggage trucks and push back tugs etc. But primarily it determines the runways, taxiways, apron routes, parking spots and jetways used by both the user, ATC and AI.

[alexf]

Marty gave you the gist. To see these AI flight files so you get a better idea you can download the free AI Flight Planner from http://members.shaw.ca/aifp then you can see, modify or create new flight plans. By opening an existing plan file you can see how it is made (they are just comma-delimited text files once decompiled). You can create new flights, using any AI aircraft you already have or many you can download from the usual places (Avsim, Flightsim, etc), plus using existing airports with parking spots. Give it a try. At least it will help you understand all of this much better.

Hint: Compiled files are in FSX/scenery/world/scenery/ folder and are generally named Traffic_xxxxxx.bgl

[FSX101]

Thanks gentlemen. How can you tell that all the AI files have been properly installed for a certain scenery. Do auto installers that are used a lot these days put the traffic_.bgl files in a named scenery folder only or also in the FSX/scenery/world/scenery/ folder.

Thanks,

Curtis

Order #49558 FTX: AU Gold Subtropical East

Order #47550 FTX: AU YSTW Tamworth Airport

Order #34020 FTX: AU YPEC Aeropelican Airport

[Martin Henare]

The answer is both. But if it is in a scenery folder that folder needs to be activated in your scenery library